Snares penguin foraging ecology and breeding behaviour
In 2002, we attempted to learn where and on what the Snares crested penguin
feeds and understand a little more of the breeding behaviour, particulaly
in relation to it's brood reduction strategy. Bad weather forced a 10-day
delay in getting to the Snares and then technical difficulties prevented
the GPS and dive loggers working correctly.

Blue penguin
foraging
In 2000, Thomas Mattern from the Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel,
Germany, came to Otago University to investigate the foraging behaviour
of blue penguins at Motuara and Oamaru. Thomas used radio tracking at
determine where the penguins were foraging and time-depth recorders (TDRs)
to determine how long and deep they were diving. He also looked at the
breeding success at both sites to see how this was affected by the foraging
strategies. Find out more here >>>.

Tourism
and blue penguins
Does tourist viewing of blue penguins under artificial lighting have an
adverse impact on breeding success or site fidelity? What impact has the
penguin watching had on the economy of Oamaru?

Stewart
Island yellow-eyed pengin census
The Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust has tackled one of the key objectives in the
Department of Conservation's Yellow-eyed penguin Species Recovery Plan
and over three summers undertook a census of Stewart Island and some of
it's adjacent islands, including the island sanctuary of Whenua Hou/Codfish
Island.

Snares
crested penguin census
In October 2000, a small team of researchers travelled to the subantarctic
Snares Islands to count the number of breeding pairs of the endemic Snares
crested penguins, the first such survey for 13 years.

Brood
reduction in erect-crested penguins
In September 1998 Dr Lloyd Davis, Martin Renner and I travelled by yacht
to the remote Antipodes Islands to study the erect-crested penguin. We spent
two months on the island, during which time we observed the penguins courtship,
egg-laying and incubation in an effort to understand the odd breeding behaviour
of crested penguins.